'The Amazing Spider-Man' Countdown: How Will Spidey Fare at the Box Office?

JohnGholson is a life-long Avengers fanboy who has previously covered all manner of superhero news at AOL. After dabbling with comic book self-publishing in the '90s, John moved on to study sequential art at the Savannah College of Art & Design, and currently produces a regular web comic, ‘Appetite for Destruction,’ for Tapsauce.com. You can read hisSpider-ManCountdown here at Movies.com every other week.

In Jeremy Kirk’s final edition of the box office tracking Reject Report for FilmSchoolRejects.com, he speculates that The Amazing Spider-Man will top out this Summer with a take of $185 million. He bases this on the box office returns for films like Batman Begins, whose grosses hovered right under the $200 million dollar mark, and the fact that it’s an origin film, too hot on the heels of Sam Raimi’s previous origin film.

I disagree with Kirk’s take for a number of reasons, the most obvious being the massive wave of good vibes toward Marvel with the astounding success of The Avengers (which has cleared a coolbillion in its second week of US release). By the time The Amazing Spider-Man hits the screen, it will have been around two months since the release of The Avengers. Audiences are going to be jonesing for their next fix of Marvel superheroes (they already are, evidenced by Avengers repeat business). Amazing Spider-Man doesn’t look as huge in scope, but it does look close enough in tone to hook movie-goers who want to replicate the good time that The Avengers gave them.

The stronger argument, though, is in previous box office. Both the original Batman and Superman film franchises ended their runs with films that grossed $107 million and $15 million, respectively. The last film in the original Spider-Man trilogy grossed $335 million. This is not the case of a franchise getting a reboot because it has financially run out of steam; this is simply a new Spidey story with a different cast (and it’s time for us to start talking about these superheroes the way we do James Bond movies -- they’re not reboots or remakes, just new adventures). The goodwill for Spider-Man is still there; the Batman and Superman comparisons just don’t hold up.

If I were spitballing, I’d put The Amazing Spider-Man in the $275-$300 million range. It lacks some of the star power of Raimi’s films, but it has a choice July 4th weekend release date and no real competition for two weeks when The Dark Knight Rises opens. It also carries the boosted ticket price of 3-D which will also bolster its grosses. This is assuming as well that the movie is any good, which, judging from the latest trailer, it should be.

News from the Web

- The last big push for the Amazing Spider-Man video game is in full effect, with an all-new trailer that makes the game look pretty darn good. Two pre-sale exclusives were also announced in advance of its June 26 release date -- Gamestop is offering Rhino as a playable character and Amazon features Spider-Man creator Stan Lee in a special mission to retrieve lost pages of a Spider-Man script.

- A new Spider-Man app launched this month, AmazingSpider-ManAR, which uses augmented reality to scan and activate exclusive Spider-Man animations (created by the movie’s stunt team). It’s the second app based on the movie (Kellogg’sAmazingSpider-ManExclusive has been around for a couple of months now, using cereal boxes to unlock short videos). Amazing Spider-Man AR is available for iPhone, iPad, and Android. (Thanks to ComingSoon.net for the tip.)

- In an interview with SuperheroHype, director Marc Webb talked about Spider-Man’s trademark sense of humor, “He's a little bit snarky, but that’s an attitude that we can all understand and relate to. I think it comes from a real genuine place.” The interview is the most in-depth one I’ve seen so far, and reveals a lot of information about Webb’s approach to the film, from the casting to the 3-D and effects.

- Webb has said that Spider-Man’s brief stint as a wrestler would be skipped in the movie, but a forumreader uncovered a revealing photo on one of the viral marketing sites. Now, this doesn’t mean we’ll get to see Spider-Man as a wrestler, but it does hint that there’s at least a nod to it in the film.

- “I’m not playing a villain, in any sense,” Rhys Ifans talks about his character in a piece of viral marketing, “It’s a man with real genuine needs and anxieties, but Connors does feel kind of cheated by God, y’know?” The clip, uncovered by FirstShowing.net, spotlights the Curt Connors character, featuring key moments not seen in the trailers (including Connors transforming into the Lizard).

There are 50 days until the release of TheAmazingSpider-Man on July 3, 2012. The Marc Webb film stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Rhys Ifans.

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